Jewish Community of Brody

In celebration of the town of Brody, Austria, present day Ukraine, and the people who came from there, particularly those who died in the Holocaust. A city, where wisdom and wealth, Torah and understanding, commerce and faith are united -Nachman Krochmal, in a letter to Isaac Erter 1961

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Description

The Jewish community of Brody (district city in Lviv (Lvov) region of western Ukraine) was one of the oldest and most well-known Jewish communities in the western part of Ukraine (and formerly in Austrian Empire / Poland up to 1939). During the 19th century, Brody was the second largest city in East Galicia (after Lviv (Lemberg)), with the highest proportion of the Jewish population (88 %) among Eastern European cities.

Notables

• Jan Kochanowski was a Polish Renaissance noble considered to be the greatest Polish poet.
• Rabbi Yisroel (Israel) ben Eliezer the Ba'al Shem Tov or Besht is considered to be the founder of Hasidic Judaism.
• After the death of anti-semitic Empress Maria Theresa of Austria in 1780, the Austrian Government was benevolent to Jews, and by 1868 Galicia's Jews had attained equal status under the law.
• Berl Broder,(1815–1868), born Berl Margulis, was a Ukrainian Jew, the most famous of the Broder singers, 19th century Jewish singers comparable to the troubadours or Minnesänger, and reputed the first to be both a singer and an actor.
• Amalia Amalie Freud had an excellent relationship with her son Sigmund Freud. According to her grandson Martin Freud, she was a typical Galician Jewish woman; she "had great vitality and much impatience; she had a hunger for life and an indomitable spirit."
• Dov Sadan (Stock) (1902 - 1989) - An Israeli academian, who served as the head of Yiddish Studies faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a Hebrew and Yiddish writer, member of the Israeli Knesset and recipient of many awards including the Israel Prize, for Jewish studies and Bialik Prize for Literature.

Brody's Owners

Brody has had city rights since 1546. In 1580 it was bought by Stanisław Żółkiewski Senior who named it
Lubicz, the name of his Coat of Arms. Since 1595 the city name is Brody. Later Lubicz/Brody belonged to his son, Stanisław Koniecpolski (1591-1646), the next Grand Hetman of the Crown, who built the Brody Castle.

The next famous owner of Brody was Jan III Sobieski, King of Poland. Later (1704) he sold Brody to the Potocki family. Jakub Ludwik Fanfanik Sobieski ... son of the king Jan III Sobieski John III Sobieski ... 4. Later he sold in 1704 Brody to Potocki family.

Rabbis

• Rabbi Saul Katzenellenbogen b. Rabbi Moses b. Meir, the rabbi of Chelm.
• Rabbi Isaac b. Issachar-Berish was known as “Cracower” (after his birthplace), a leader of the Council of the Four Lands and the grandson of Rabbi Heschel of Cracow, Rabbi Isaac headed the Brody community in the years 1690-1704.
• Rabbi Abraham Cahana b. Rabbi Shalom Shachna, a parnas of the Cracow community. He presided in Brody until 1718 when he was called to preside over Ostrog (Ostraha). However, he was forced to leave when an overlord of the city coveted his daughter.
• Rabbi Eliezer Rokeach. In 1735, Rabbi Eliezer was invited to preside over the Ashkenazi community in Amsterdam. Because of strife in the city, he subsequently left and emigrated to Eretz Israel in 1740. Some of Rabbi Eliezer's published writings are: “Ma'asei Rokeach” on the Mishnayol, “Ma'asei Rokeach” on the Torah; “Arba'ah Turei Even” including 24 responsa, and a commentary on the Haggadah of Passover.
• Rabbi Jacob-Jokel Horowitz headed the Rabbinate of Brody for 11 years starting in 1736. Due to the rabbi's verdict against the daughter of an important family, who had been charged with adultery before a civil court, Rabbi Jacob was forced to leave Brody and moved to Glogau, where he served as rabbi from 1747.
• Rabbi Meir Margoliouth, author of the “Meir Netivim”
• Rabbi Nathan b. Levi, a famous Hasid, was known as a vigorous opponent of Shabbateanism and Frankism. It was his opinions that shifted the balance against the writings of Rabbi Jonathan Eybeschuetz in 1752, having them declared “absolute heresy.”
• Rabbi Ezekiel Landau, author of the “Noda bi-Yehudah”, settled and studied in Brody for a few years. He differed with most of the scholars of the kloiz concerning Rabbi Eybeschuetz, and attempted to prevent the banning of his works.
• Rabbi Abraham Gershon Kitover, the Ba'al Shem Tov's brother in-law, came from his native town of Dubno to live in Brody and be part of the kloiz. Kitover served for many years as substitute rabbi to Moses Osterer b. Hillel of Zamosc. He achieved fame with his book “Arugot Ha-Bosem”.
• Rabbi Naftali b. Levi, author of “Bait Levi” and “Ateret Shlomo”, was also outstanding among the scholars of the kloiz in Brody.
• Ephraim Zalman Margolioth established a banking-house which proved so successful that within a short time he became quite wealthy. In 1785 he published his responsa entitled "Bet Ḥadash ha-Ḥadashot"; and in the following year the rabbis of Brody elected him one of their number.
• Gaon Rav Shlomo Kluger held the offices of Dayan and preacher at Brody for more than fifty years.
• Rabbi Shlomo Ya'akov Kuten son of Rabbi Yosef Aharon Kuten "Hayashis", was born in 1872 (תרל"ג ) to his father who was the head of the Rabbinc Court ( אב"ד) of Lesznow near Brody. He inherited his father position in 1892. He became the head of the Rabbinic Court of Brody after World War I. He became the head of The Rabbinical Court of Vladimeretz ,Ukraine before the Holocaust and perished there along with his wife Belah Dvora nee Halperin and daughter Teivel (from the Entsiklopidia Shel Kakhmei Galitsia, Part Four, Page 217).

The Kloiz of Brody.

In the 18th century, eminent rabbis from all over Galicia would come there to study Torah all week long, into the wee hours of the night. "At the time," writes Rabbi Yehezkel Landau (1714-1793), author of "Noda Beyehuda," who was sent to Brody to study at the age of 13, "it was a town of ethereal beauty, full of scholars and authors."

Among the kloiz scholars were a handful who devoted themselves to the study of Jewish mysticism. Stories and legends grew up around this city where the hum of learning never stopped, and its reputation for piety and sanctity persevered over the generations. At the same time, it served as a source of inspiration for the Haskalah movement, and the literary works of several important authors, among them Shalom Aleichem and S.Y. Agnon, were set here.

Literary critic and researcher Dov Sadan (1892-1989), born in Brody, heaps praises on the town in his memoir "Mimehoz Hayaldut." Apart from his personal memories, he is proud of the intellectual giants, fathers of the Enlightenment, who walked its streets: Joshua Heschel Schorr, Jacob Samuel Bick, Nahman Krochmal (the Ranak), to name a few.

Died in the Holocaust

• Dr. Martzin Folger, violinist and conductor.

Emigrants to the United States

• Sam Oscar Heiman
• Mottel Heiman
• Pearl Hyman
• Sam Halberstam Kutten

Emigrants to Israel (Palesteine)

• Dov Sadan

Finding Our Galician Ancestors

• Galician Surname Index
• Brody
• Ukraine Special Interest Group
• Ukrainian Shtetls
• Galicia, Austria
• "Brody" in the Gesher Galicia database
• Gesher Galicia - Jewish DNA Project

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The Jewish community of Brody perished in the Holocaust in 1942 and 1943 and is no more today.

They Say the Town of Brody Is No More

Copyright © 1987 Greta Chalfin

They say the town of Brody is no more. Supposedly, it has been turned into a
restricted, off-limits security zone and there no longer is any trace of the streets, park and buildings where we grew up. Yet the mental image is so very clear in my mind that I could almost reach out and touch the irises bordering the large circular flower bed in the center of Rojekowka.

I can hear the wind rustling through the chestnut trees which lined the alleys all along the square park. I can see young couples sitting on park benches in the shade of those chestnut trees and I can remember gathering the chestnuts, knocking off the prickly green skin to get to the hard brown nuts we collected. I can almost taste the fresh wild strawberries, raspberries and blueberries displayed in black earthen pots by peasant women at the park entrance - right near the watchtower - and I can still relish the enjoyment of purchasing a 5¢ chocolate bar from Hart's kiosk in that watchtower and listen to the big clock strike the hour . . .

I remember the statue of Joseph Korzeniowski at the other corner of the park, where it towered over the street named for him. I can experience the sadness thinking of the untimely death of Urszulka Kochanowska, the 12-year-old daughter of a poet who was born in Brody and who immortalized her in a poem . . . And the pleasure of listening to the weekly concerts performed by the army brass band in the center of the park . . . And the carefree hours our gang spent in the park engaged in a game of hopscotch or "Snail" when we would draw the outlines in the soft ground and jump away in pursuit of a shard of glass . . .

Of course, with the onset of the war all this came to an abrupt end. In 1939 and later in 1941, bombs demolished many of the buildings. From our gang of playmates only three survived; but maybe these memories are so very real because they were the last carefree days of our childhood and contained all that we held dear before it was taken from us forever.

Holocaust in Brody

The Jewish community of Brody perished in the Holocaust. A group of 250 Brody Jewish intellectuals were shot nearby the Jewish cemetery in Brody (where the Holocaust monument stands now). Some of surviving Brody Jews were imprisoned in the family camp of Pyanytsia (Pianica) in the forests near Lviv. All of remaining Brody Jews were moved into the ghetto created in the town on January 1, 1943 (or December 1942). Another 3,000 Jews from neighbouring areas of Zolochiv, Lopatyn and Busk were subsequently added to Brody's ghetto. Horrible work conditions made some young people to run away joining the Soviet army. Ghetto's poor hygiene and hunger were non-tolerable. The disease and famine took hundreds of Jewish lives. On September 19, 1942, around 2,500 Jews of Brody were deported to the extermination camp of Belżec (today a little town on Polish Ukrainian border). On November 2, 3,000 more Jews were sent from Brody to Bełżec extermination camp. Many Brody Jews were exterminated in Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin (a city in the south east corner of Poland).

All 9,000 Jews of Brody ghetto were subsequently mass murdered on May 1, 1943.

The Synagogue That Couldn't Be Destroyed

• Photos.

The Nazis succeeded in destroying much of the Jewish population of Brody. Much of the town itself was destroyed in the Battle of Brody. This was a terrific battle that took place between the Galicia Division, Ukrainians who were fighting on the side of the Germans in the hope of winning Ukrainian independence, and the Soviets. The Galicia Division was badly beaten, with tremendous loss of life. But neither the enemies of the Jews nor the bombardment of battle could completely destroy Brody's 17th-century fortress synagogue. To this day, its shell remains and can be viewed by travelers.

Brody, in Memoriam

• An Eternal Light: Brody, in Memoriam
• History of the Jews in Brody
• ShtetlLinks for Brody
• The Jewish Settlement of Brody
• "A Quiet Hero Living in Our Midst"
• "The Jewish Fighting Organization in Brody"
• The Jewish Community of Brody

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• The Brody Klaus , Page 14 - 17 By Edward Gelles (Reprinted from The Galitzianer, Volume 19, Number 3, September, 2012)

Jewish Community Life in Brody

A fragment of the Brody Beth Din records from the early 19th century has survived. I obtained a copy of this manuscript through the courtesy of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. It has proved to be an invaluable source of genealogical and sociological material for a town within the Austro‐Hungarian Empire which had a large Jewish community and was also for a considerable time an important center of Jewish learning.

For ten years, from 1808 to 1817, the records detail all manner of transactions that make up the warp and weft of a town’s social fabric, such as the purchase and sale of houses, land, and other property, wills and bequests, marriage contracts, and much more. The names of people and the details of these transactions, when combined with the civil records of births, marriages, and deaths and the real estate registers, throw light on family connections and the life of the community.

The procedures followed in my study of the Gelles family are of general applicability, and so are some of the conclusions. For example, Moses Gelles of Brody was a scholar of the study group called the Brody Klaus around the middle of the 18th century. He was variously referred to as Gelles and Levush. I suggested that the epithet “Levush” recalled a descent from the 16th century Rabbi Mordecai Yaffe of Prague and the title of his magnum opus, the Levushim.

This Hebrew epithet is noted for four generations and is quite distinct from vernacular trade soubriquets, such as “Woskoboinik” (wax chandler or candle maker), used by some members of the Gelles family. There is evidence of other Levushes who were known to be descendants of Mordecai Yaffe. A perusal of the Beth Din records reveals that, at least in this place and period, it was general practice to refer to men of distinguished ancestry by adding the ancestor’s epithet or the title of his major work of scholarship.

This custom of recalling famous forebears clearly provides useful pointers in
rabbinical genealogy.
This custom also indicates the importance attached to lineage (yichus) and to standing in the Brody community, in which learning tended to take precedence over wealth in determining social position. Families such as Babad, Chayes, Margolioth, and Shapiro combined ancient lineage, intellectual distinction, and wealth. The balance between lineage and learning on one hand and more material attributes on the other was delicately struck in arranged marriages. The leading rabbis featured prominently in the social hierarchy.

The Gelles family owned some land, several houses, and a chandlery (Vaskievonia). They appear to have had a monopoly on the supply of candles to the community. From the mid‐1700’s to the early 1800’s, a part of which is covered by the Beth Din records, the family was quite prosperous.

Membership in the Klaus certainly carried considerable prestige. This is the period for which there are records of marriage alliances with the families of Brody Rabbis Heschel Hakohen, Meir Fraenkel, Yehuda Leib Zundel, Berach Margoshes, and others. The Gelles connections with Rabbi Pinchas Shapiro of Koretz are documented and discussed elsewhere.

A marriage contract (ketubah) from the year 1817 between the Gelles and Margoshes families contains several points of interest, viz. the relative status of the participating families; the apparent youth of the bridegroom; the use of the Russian ruble, among other currencies, in a town which was an entrepot between the Austrian and Russian empires; and assurance by the bridegroom’s brother to carry out the chalitza ceremony, if required.

The community was strong in its religious faith, the winds of enlightenment blowing from post‐ Revolutionary France not yet having made much impact in this distant outpost of the Austrian Empire. The synagogue was central to the life of the community, and many smaller houses of prayer catered to special groups.

Synagogue seats were bequeathed, sold, and rented. A good example is provided by Finkel, a daughter of R. Dov Ber Fraenkel and the wife of Reb Wolf Bolechower, who purchased 35 seats, later selling some or using the funds from their rental for charitable purposes.

Many houses and plots of land stayed in the same family for several generations, and numerous entries for property transactions refer to owners passing property to their heirs and to later subdivisions. An analysis of names, property numbers, and dates of transactions has confirmed a number of family links.

Moses Gelles died before the period covered by the Beth Din document. His property was divided between his children and in‐laws and then went to their children and grandchildren. Their houses and parcels of land were therefore often adjoining one another or the land on part of which stood the family waxworks.

In the short span of ten years the Beth Din record encompasses information on four generations of related families. Several entries show that Moses Gelles of the Klaus was one and the same person as Menachem Levush and that his sons Michel Levush or Gelles, Joseph Gelles Vaskievonie, and Mordecai Gelles had numerous issue known by various names. R. Moshe Gershon, a son of Joseph Gelles, sometimes referred to as R. Moshe, can be distinguished from the R. Moshe Gelles whose name is given on the Brody tombstone of his son, Rabbi David Isaac Gellis. This R. Moshe was probably a son of the above‐mentioned R. Mordecai Gelles, who was a mechutan (in‐law) of Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz.

More light is thrown on other in‐laws. Thus, Rabbi Yehuda Zundel, grandfather of another Moshe Levush or Gelles, appears to be identical with the Rabbi Yehuda Leib Zundel Ramraz who belonged to the circle of the wise men of Brody and died in 1804. Reb Berach Margoshes’ granddaughter married a Gelles, and Berach’s wife may have been the daughter of R.Shmuel Gelles.

The family of Reb Ahron Benish seems to be connected through the wives of Ahron’s sons, Reb Simcha and Reb David Hertz. The two couples sold their separate interests in two houses to the brothers‐ in‐law Meir Fraenkel and Moses Gershon Gelles.

The prosperity of the Gelles family declined as candles gave way to gaslight and as Brody suffered from the siting of new railways, the decline of its importance as a trading center, and the loss of its status as a Free City. Many Jews left their ancient hometown. Some, such as the Brodskys, flourished in Odessa and elsewhere in Russia. In the closing decades of the 19th century the influx of refugees from Russian pogroms led to overcrowding and poverty in Brody, but by that time many of the old families had been dispersed throughout Galicia, Austria, and beyond.

Data from the Brody Beth Din records, the civil records in the L’viv archives, and tombstone inscriptions have been augmented recently (2012) by the new Gesher Galicia Brody Cemetery Database.

Monetary Currencies

In this period the use of a variety of coins was widespread and by no means confined to Brody. For a century from 1779 Brody was a Free City with a flourishing trade between eastern and central Europe Money in the above‐mentioned documents included the Rhenish, a term for the contemporary German gulden or Netherlandish guilder. The latter was the standard Dutch coin, but many other coins were used in The Netherlands (for references to the ryder, worth 14 guilders, see http://www. giacomo‐ casanova.de/catour16.htm .

This Web page contains interesting information on late 18th‐century coinage and prices across Europe, drawn from various sources, including Casanova’s Memoirs, Thomas Nugent’s Grand Tour, and other writings). The pound sterling was worth about 11 1⁄2 Dutch guilders and about 5 1⁄2 Russian rubles, which were of similar value to the rixdollar (a variety of different Netherlandish coins each averaging about 448 grains in weight of .885 fine silver). The new Russian silver ruble, introduced under Tsar Alexander I in 1810, was clearly popular in Brody.

The money settlements in the quoted marriage contracts are in the range of a few hundred to a

Notes

1. Records of the Beth Din of Brody 1808–1817, MS 4037, held at Jewish Theological Seminary, New York. All entry numbers cited in this article refer to entries in these Beth Din records.

2. Edward Gelles, “Finding Rabbi Moses Gelles”, Avotaynu , Vol. 18, No. 1, Spring 2002.


3. Nathan M. Gelber, “Brody: The Jerusalem of Austria”, in An Eternal Light: Brody in Memoriam, Jerusalem: Organisation of Former Brody Residents in Israel, 1994. Footnote on the Brody Klaus.

4. Instances are entries 1116 for R. Zalman Margoshes Shach (descendant of the “Shach”, an acronym for Rabbi Shabbatai Katz) and 1172 for Chaim Zvi Hersh, son of R. Moshe Efrayim Chacham Zvi (descendant of Chacham Zvi Ashkenazi). More relevant to the interpretation of the Levush name, as referring to descent from Rabbi Mordecai Yaffe and to the title of his book, are instances of other epithets derived from famous rabbinical works, namely entries 1132, 1138, and 1278 for Reb Mendel Tevuos Shor, Reb Alexander Chaim Tevuos Shor, and Reb Yosef Yisrael Tevuos Shor (members of the Shor family descended from the author of Tevuos Shor ) and 1350 for Leah, daughter of R. Avrohom Yitzchak Halevy Turei Zahav (after his ancestor David Halevy Segal, the author of the book Turei Zahav ).

The case for the derivation of the epithet Levush is certainly strengthened by these examples from the Beth Din records. The civil birth, marriage, and death records of Brody confirm that Gelles and Levush were alternative or additional names in the family for several generations. A previous record of this epithet is connected to known progeny of the Levush. The tombstone of a R. Nehemia Levush of Svierz and later of Vilna has an inscription stating that his father Rabbi Zvi Levush was a descendant of Rabbi Mordecai Yaffe .

5. Entry 1420. Ketubah of Abraham (a bachelor), son of Rabbi Moshe Gelles, son of Reb Joseph Vaskievonie (owner of the waxworks and one of the sons of Moses Gelles Levush of Brody), who married Taube, daughter of Rabbi Josef Kalischer, son of R. Berach Margoshes, on Friday, 6 Tamuz 5577 (20 June 1817). Reb Moshe Gelles promised to pay the sum of 450 Russian rubles, support the couple for the first three years of their marriage, and pay for their clothing, as well as tuition fees (the provision for the payment of tuition fees may indicate the extreme youth of the bridegroom). Reb Josef Kalischer gave the sum of 100 Russian rubles. The bridegroom’s brother Reb Yankel Gelles gave an assurance to carry out the chalitza ceremony if necessary (the ceremony involves release of a childless bride by the brother of the bridegroom in the event of the bridegroom’s death).

Other marriage contracts of the period refer to varying sums of money and years of support. Thus, in entry 277, for the 1808 marriage of Yitzchak, a son of Reb Benjamin Zeev Bolechover, Yitzchak was endowed with 1980 reinish and a promise of five years of support by the father of the bridegroom and separately by the mother of the bride. Entries 1391, 1395, 1397, and 1412 refer to 2,700 silver rubles and six years support, 675 rubles and three years support from the bride’s father, 1,425 new rubles with each side supporting the couple for four years, and 1,125 Russian rubles with support of two years from the bride’s father and five years from the bridegroom’s father. While the most common currency of the period was the Russian ruble, Austrian ducats (Kaiserliche dukaten ) are mentioned in entry 1258 dated 1814, Prussian currency (Preussisch ) in 447 dated 1808, and Dutch coinage (rendelech Hollander ) in 424 and 429 in 1808.

6. Entry 394. “Finkel [the sister of Rabbi Meir Fraenkel, a son‐in‐law of R. Josef Gelles Vaskievonie, who was a son of R. Moses Gelles], daughter of R. Dov Ber Fraenkel and wife of Reb Wolf Bolechower, purchased 35 seats in the Synagogue.” Entry 1133. “A sale by the wealthy Finkel ... of a seat in the women’s section of the New Synagogue ... in memory of the soul of the late Feiga, daughter of Reb Yehoshua Heshel Hakohen, the wife of Rabbi Michel, son of Reb Moshe Gelles ... so that this should be an everlasting memorial to her soul, never to be sold.

The rental income from the seat is to be used to pay for a yahrzeit lamp [candle lit on the anniversary of the deceased’s death] and the remainder to be distributed to the local poor on the day of her yahrzeit . She appointed a trustee ... Elul 5573 [September 1813].” The husband of the abovementioned Feiga is identified in entry 270. “Reb Michel, son of Reb Menachem Levush* (son‐in‐ law of Reb. S. Gelles), signed and sealed to his wife Feiga, daughter of Rabbi Yehoshua Heshel, that if she passes away before him, he is obliged to return to her heirs, or to whomever she instructs, half of the value of her shterentuchel ** [the customary jewelled headdress], and all clothing, bedding etc, immediately after her death ... 27 Tishri 5568 [29 October 1807].”

• Menachem Levush in entry 270 is thus one and the same person as Moses Gelles in entry 1133.
  
• An entry in 1808 gives the value of a shterentuchel as at least 200 rendelech Hollander , and an entry for the wedding in 1813 of Benjamin Wolf, son of Zvi Hirsch Schonblum of Lvov, to Rikel Landau, daughter of R. Yosef ben R. Shachna, refers to a shterentuchel , earrings, and pearls being worth at least 900 Russian rubles.
  

Entry 401. “Gittel Malka, the widow of Reb Todros ben Ramraz [of the Zundel family] sold a seat on the eastern wall in the women’s section, next to the seat belonging to Malka Margoshes ... Iyyar 5568 [May 1808].” Entry 1308. “Sale by Chaya, widow of R. Shmuel Gelles, of half a seat in the women’s section of the synagogue to Ektish, wife of the wealthy R. Yehoshua Margalioth ... 28 Menachem [Av] 5575 [3 September 1815].”

7. Parts of houses and parcels of land were conveyed frequently between the heirs of Moses Gelles and their descendants. These transactions involved Leah and Bonna and their in‐laws of the Benish family (entries 713 and 813; see also entries 1064 and 1067); Reb Moshe Gershon Gelles, a son of R. Joseph Gelles Vaskievonie, and his brother‐in‐law Rabbi Meir Shlomo Fraenkel (entries 713, 786, and 813); the latter’s wealthy sister Finkel and her husband Reb Benyamin Wolf Bolechover (entries 574 and 922); and other sons of R. Joseph Gelles, namely Reb Yaakov Hersh Feigang and Rabbi Abraham Yonah Reich with the Reich family (entry 786).

These two Gelles family members were referred to by the names of their fathers‐in‐law, a common custom at the time. Yonah Reich is perhaps identifiable as the father of the R. Isaac Reich who married a granddaughter of R. Joseph Landau, ABD of Zolkiew who became head of the Brody Klaus in 17578 .
R. Moshe Gershon Gelles was probably Bonna’s brother. Reb Mordechai Gelles, a brother of Reb Joseph Vaskievonie, is mentioned (entries 762 and 1035), and Reb Shmuel may be a kinsman of Moshe Gelles of the Klaus (entries 481, 530, and 953). Reb Shmuel’s daughter married Reb Berach Margoshes.
The Margoshes also had marriage links with the Shapiro family (entries 860 and 863). The identity of Rabbi Yehuda Zundel, whose daughter Sarah Bathya married Mordecai Levush, son of R. Michel Gelles, is indicated by the entry for a property sale to their son Reb Moshe Levush in March 1814 (entry 1194) and the entry relating to land belonging to the heirs of the late R. Zundel Ramraz (entry 1131) and again to the heirs of Reb Zundel son of R. M. Reb Zelig’s in December 1814 (entry 1260). Rabbi Yehuda Leib Zundel carried the epithet “Ramraz”, an acronym for Rabbi Moshe Reb Zelig’s (as the son‐in‐law of Reb Zelig was called).

8. Neil Rosenstein, The Unbroken Chain , Lakewood, NJ: CIS Publishers, 1990, pp. 755–757.

Edward Gelles, M.A., D.Phil. (Oxford 1951), was born in Vienna in 1927 and has lived in England since 1938. He has published numerous papers on physical chemistry in scientific journals, a book and articles on antiques and art, and five books and many articles on Jewish history and genealogy. He may be contacted at edward.gelles@btinternet.com This essay will be included in a forthcoming volume of collected essays by Dr. Gelles.

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Hello,
I am a little upset how easily facts can be changed and "legends" created.

Jan Kochanowski was born in CENTRAL POLAND and he had NOTHING common with Brody. Listing him as "notables" born in Brody is like to connect Mohandas Gadhi to Washington D.C. and to say that he was born there (based only on fact that there is a monument of M. Gadhi in Washington D.C.). Be more exact and more careful, and check at least Wikipedia before you list facts and description of a town or well-known people......

regards
Wojciech Kauczynski

Hi Wojciech --

I was quoting from a copyrighted work so needed to respect the written copyright. Perhaps the original translation was in error, I do not know.

I have of course re-moved the profile of Joseph Conrad from the project but do need to leave it in the narrative. Your note here stands as the correction.

Best regards Erica Howton

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